TV Show Might Foster Bigotry

Published in “Dallas Morning News”

July 22, 2000

Recent outrage from the gay community and our supporters concerning
Paramount’s upcoming Laura Schlessinger television show has been
met by cries from her defenders about Schlessinger’s First
Amendment rights. Schlessinger has the right to say what she wants,
where she wants and whenever she wants. She doesn’t have the
right to a television talk show.

On May 20th, the ACLU’s Peter Eliasberg said on ABC’s
“World News Tonight” that asking Paramount to not produce
Schlessinger’s TV show wasn’t a legal infringement of her
First Amendment rights. The ACLU is the nation’s top First
Amendment advocate.

Our concern involves Paramount producing, television stations
airing and advertisers making money from a show whose host makes
hateful statements towards gays, bogus statements of opinion
(positioned as fact) and offers dangerous advice in support
of her bigotry. Paramount would never produce a show staring a host
that called any other minority “biological errors,”
“deviants” and accused the majority of them of being
“pedophiles.”

David Lee (co-creator and executive producer of
Paramount’s “Fraiser” and co-producer and writer of
Paramount’s “Cheer”s" and “Wings”)
met with Paramount Chairman, Kerry McCluggage to complain. Lee asked
McCluggage, “Would you produce a show that was anti-Semitic or
anti-Black?” McCluggage replied, “That’s apples
and oranges.” The gay community will no longer be treated as
oranges.

StopDrLaura.com, the gay command center concerning Schlessinger,
has received well over 30 million hits and millions of unique visitors
since its launch on March 1st. The response is hardly that of a few
gay activists as Schlessinger asserts.

As to Schlessinger’s strong Orthodox Jewish beliefs, the
Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai Brith (Judaism’s hate
watch group) sent Schlessinger a letter on March 24th stating,
“We believe that a tone of demonization and needless hostility
characterizes your remarks on these issues... we are concerned that
others might use such statements to justify acts of violence or
discriminate against gays and lesbians.”

Orthodox Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote in “The Jewish
Week”: “Dr. Laura’s pronouncements of
homosexuality as ‘deviant’ and derivative of
‘biological error’ are unjust... Dr. Laura’s comments
are misguided precisely because they reinforce an erroneous view of
homosexuality in the Bible and reflect more of her personal opinion on
this issue than that of traditional religion in whose voice she claims
to speak.”

Organizations representing 477,000 health and mental health
professionals have stated that being gay is not abnormal and hence
there is no need to “cure” gays. Yet, Schlessinger tells
listeners that gays can be cured through reparative therapy. The
American Psychiatric Association, The American Psychological
Association and the National Association of Social Workers all oppose
Schlessinger’s recommended reparative therapy stating that such
therapy may result in serious damage including increased depression,
even suicide.

On May 9th the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, broadcast
media’s voluntary monitor, found Schlessinger’s comments
“constituted abusively discriminatory of those persons on the
basis of their sexual orientation.” They added, “Her
characterization of herself as Dr. Schlessinger when the degree which
she has earned has no relevance to the opinions which she
expresses.”

The CBSC concluded, “While she does not herself advocate any
of the homophobic hostility or, worse, brutality, which can be found
in criminal corners of society, the cumulative effect of
Schlessinger’s positions on gay and lesbian issues from her
powerfully influential platform behind a very popular microphone, !
may well fertilize the ground for other less well-balanced elements,
by her cumulative position, to take such aggressive steps.”

Schlessinger claims that her opponents have taken her comments out
of context. The CBSC reviewed entire shows where her comments were in
question and they recommended that her show not be carried in Canada.

NBC’s Chicago station recently offered Jerry Springer a
commentator position on their evening news. Both news anchors
resigned. The station withdrew its offer to Springer. Nobody screamed
about Springer’s First Amendment rights. They complemented the
station for exercising sound judgment.

Several religious organizations including Focus on the Family and
the Family Research Council met with Procter and Gamble in June
concerning P&G’s decision to pull sponsorship from
Schlessinger’s radio and TV shows. During their meeting they
convinced P&G to cease sponsoring two shows airing on MTV because of
objectionable content.

When right wing religious groups ask for television shows to be
pulled it is called “Family Values.” However, when gays
protest a show featuring a host who maligns us, provides inaccurate
information and recommends dangerous and unnecessary therapy,
it’s called “interfering with First Amendment rights.”
Any other minority would be applauded for standing up against such
bigotry.

John R. Selig is the Dallas Protester Organizer and a National
Steering Committee member with StopDrLaura.com. He is also a freelance
writer and photojournalist.